Now I don't feel so bad after seeing your mess! I kept hearing running upstairs and found my 3 year-old running back and forth through my bathroom. There was water everywhere. She was making 'footprints' (thanks to a Blue's Clues video) I choose water over green paint!

Hee hee hee! You poor thing. When I saw the Florida, I meant to tell you how cool I thought that was and how nice a job he was doing. I guess I won't say anything about paint now. That doesn't look like it will be fun to clean. Are you ever able to get the perpetrators to help you clean up, or is that pretty much not happening? I do hope you know of something to get paint off ... everything. Silicone spatula, yep, that comes off (I would assume). The rest of it; well, I'm taking notes for when my kids get older!

Michelle,They absolutely do help clean up. Austin cleaned up his Florida mess last night and hand washed the spatula. Joe and I did most of the floor cleaning today, but Jackson volunteered to help too! I about had a heart attack.

See .. you're such a good mom, Dawn! A kid volunteered to help clean up a mess. You've officially succeeded with him. I dream of the day I get someone to offer to help (ok, my 2 year old insisting she sweep her crumbs from under the table doesn't count).

I'm impressed that underneath the green paint, your floors look so clean and shiny. Also, I know this is random, but I have to comment on the fact that I have the same cow magnet that's on your fridge (my husband and I have a running joke about cows since I'm from Chicago)!

THAT is friggin hilarious. Sorry, it didn't happen to me, so I find it funny. Coincedentally, I let my 23 mth old grandson paint for the very 1st time ever today. Those pictures are what I expected my house to look like, but he was surprisingly neat. I sat next to him the entire time and I rinsed the brush for him, but he stayed on the paper. It was fun :)Now, honestly tell us what your reaction was when you 1st saw that mess. I won't think any less of you ;)

LOL. I can remember messes like that when I had littlies. Now mine are grown up with littlies of their own and they complain of these sorts of messes.I always say it is still a clean mess. Nothing a little soap and water will not fix.Keep smiling and healthyloveJudyVictoria Australia

I meant to comment on the post you did about the permanent marker picture on your table. My 4 year old got into my stash of multicolored permanent markers and wrote on everything and I mean everything. The doors one that is unfinsihed on the front of our house the steps the walls........ Hes a smart one too he wrote his NAME!!!! I noticed it when I moved a curtain in our hallway upstairs to see if it was snowing. UGHHHHHH I said to Noah did you do this. HAON (Noah written backwards dont ask he's in a phase) He said NOPE Sawyer did it. When I told him Sawyer who is 3 doesnt know how to write his name Noah didnt say another word just hung his head. Good grief!!

Dawn darling you just may be my saving grace. Its nice to know we are in the same boat. On a cheery note at least our boat is filled with beautiful artwork.

It could be worse - it could have been vegetable oil (like the time my son anointed himself in the middle of the kitchen floor). He had a great time playing in the stuff but it was a full week until we weren't sliding all over the kitchen floor...

Dawn,I was just sitting here catching up on your blog and found out about Julian. I can not even pretend to know what it is like to lose a child. My Nephew died about 3 years ago after battling for 2 and 1/2 years so I was really touched and was brought to tears (even as I type). I wish this family all they need to mend and heal and still trust in God. My prayers are with them.Jenifer CoverdaleDillsburg, PA

Well...at least the little darlin' in question came in to wash hands. That's good isn't it?

I have a two-hundred-year-old farm table in my kitchen...battered, beaten, scarred and marked over the years. My ONE son has added his touch to the generations with water colors and a bit of marker. I imagine if I had more than the one, I'd never need a table cloth.

Ditto the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! I teach kindergarten and whenever there's paint involved the magic eraser is handy. A tip for a busy lady like yourself, let them draw/write in men's shaving cream on a dingy floor. It's fun for them and the alcohol cleans up the floor nicely. All you have to do is wipe/mop it clean. I let my students do this on their tabletops once a quarter to clean 'em up.

How about an entire 100 ounce jug of liquid Tide dumped in the MIDDLE of the BEIGE living room carpet? The folks at the carpet cleaner places all laughed at me when I called for their help. You know how that stuff is BRIGHT BLUE? We finally rented a steam cleaner from the grocery store. It took my husband 3 hours to keep spraying and rinsing until the soap stopped sudsing up.

My most recent "painting adventure" was with my 4 year old. He got tired of painting HIS picture and decided to paint the dog's toenails PURPLE. After the toenails, he moved onto the dog's paws. Nothing like playing "Blue's Clues" in my own house looking for all the purple pawprints. A CLUE, A CLUE... Ahhh, the memories!

It's a good thing that you keep your sense of humor! What a good Mom. : )

Why does that look so very familiar?? It is spooky, oh so spooky sometimes... Then once I had to go to the bathroom while the kids were painting and by the time I got back (and I was not constipated or anything, we are talking maybe 5 minutes top) they had painted their arms, faces and the walls.

Awwwwwww Dawn you have been fibbing to us? That is at least 3 sections of floor with no kid-stuff to trip over lol. Look on the bright side though - the painter kids washed their hands without having to be told 17 times! And with soap too!!! I'm impressed lol.Just keep reminding yourself - they will have kids of their own one day and you get to sit back and giggle

Oh. My. Word! I so hope that wasn't model paint. That stuff doesn't come out of anything!

What a good mom you are to allow artistic expression...I've been guilty of forbidding such things because I didn't want the hassle of cleaning up. Of course my toddler takes revenge by getting into my craft drawers while daddy is 'watching' him, and stamping blue stamp pads all over my white bedding.

But then dinner table conversation in our old age would sure be boring if not for these sorts of stories to reminisce about!

Oh that's classic!! That was us on Saturday. We were building a little snowman, and my son wanted to 'dress him up' so I let him go get a scarf from his sisters room. Please wipe your feet before you go in the house. Yep, go in the house 20 minutes later and there are little puddles of water all over the floor. Of course, I didn't notice until I sank my socked foot into one of these very cold puddles.

It is so nice to see that all kids do crazy stuff. When mine were younger I thought I'd lose my mind!

Here's a question off the subject, possibly for your Sunday Sound Out...my husband and I are planning a baseball trip for this summer and the Cubs are on our list...what restaurants would you recommend we try in your fine city?

When I saw the title of the post I just knew what I was going to see. Bless you for documenting it, and not strangling the little perpetrators. I had a friend with 3 little boys who painted her brand new car with bright blue house paint. She screamed and yelled and ranted and raved everytime they tested her patience and they eventually learned to tune her out. They have all had their problems with authority growing up and even tangled with the law. If keep your cool when your children are little, your problems will be little. Choose your battles and know that your children will remember your laughter a lot longer than your anger.

When my daughter was about 5 she painted my car! I had been painting her room (pink, purple, mint green and all the other lovely girly colors) and left the paint trays outside over night with the paint brushes in them... when the next morning I when to clean up the paint mess and found my car painted in all the girly colors! And about your nice clean and shiny floors I bet they were freshly sweeped and mopped right? That's how it is my house anyways... the messes never happen just before I clean my floor they happen just after!

Well, at least by doing this blog, you've got great documentation for laughs in the future-- because these things magically get funny later--much later, like when you have grandkids and your kids are the lucky ones who get to clean up the green paint from every surface of their homes.

How funny! Kinda looks like my house last night - my little ones (2 1/2 and 3 1/2) wanted to color so my daughter (11) was charged with watching them at the table while I did some laundrey. Next thing I know, my 2 year old has painted his hands - front and back- and his cheeks, and my dining room table (luckily with washable paints!), all while my 11 year old "watched" and "didn't see him do it". Gotta love their creative genius!

OH NO!!! LOL My heart skipped a beat there momentarily as I imagined myself in your shoes having to clean that up. And then I imagined myself handing over babywipes and paper towels and making the kids doing some of the work themselves and suddenly the world seemed okay again. LOL My floors could always use a good scrubbing seems like, anyway, so some green paint might just be a good incentive. hee hee!!

Why is having fun so messy?! All the fun artsy things, like the Florida map and the green paint make such a mess, but what can you do? I love it when my son scribbles me a beautiful drawing, even if he gets blue marker all over his face while he's at it.

Hee, hee. That reminds me of the time my nephew painted his baby brother blue, then set him free in the house. Blue streaks, blue smears, blue handprints, and a blue buttprint right in the middle of the living room. How do they think these things up?!?!?

Dawn, I'm so glad that other houses sport that beautiful pre- spring-is-almost-here-so-let's-make-some-"art"-look. Our footprints, handprints, and face prints (don't ask, but it did take me days to get the "permanent" marker off someone's face --he looked like a 20 month old with a half goatie) were brown, though because two of the four boys wanted to recreate the BROWN bionicle. :-) Lego really needs to start making pastel Bionicles.

Dawn,I have been meaning to post a comment for months but never seem to have enough time. I read your blog at work but our firewall blocks access to the picture and to the comments. So I have to save up enough energy to check out your blog at night.

I have only 5 kids and used to yell at them for every little thing. Since I found your blog this summer, I have tried to find the humor in what they do instead of just yelling. It is really hard but I am getting better at it.

I read your post a couple of weeks ago about how Clay gets the cookies from the top of the fridge. I thought to myself, "at least Markian (my 8 3/4 year old) climbs on the counter next to the fridge to reach the top." The following weekend he walks into our bathroom while I am in there to get a bandaid because his chin is bleeding. I ask him what happened and eventually he tells me - he fell off the fridge when he was trying to reach the snacks. I couldn't understand how he got to the top of the fridge until he told me that he fell off the "step" explained it was the ice dispenser. I just laughed, cleaned up his cut, thanked God that it wasn't worse, and asked if he was going to do that again. He said, "No, I'll just get a chair."